"The Unreliability Epidemic"

I'm possibly getting HIRED to give my OPINIONS!! Yes, this is my 304th blog, and in each one I have given my opinion about things for FREE.  You can understand, then, why I'd jump at the chance to get PAID to give my opinions, right?

Here's what happened.

A local legal firm is hiring people for a half a day only to simply GIVE THEIR FEEDBACK on real, pending legal cases....as fake "jurors."  This helps them determine the strength of their lawyer's arguments, etc. before going to trial.  For this "heads up" they pay $100 PLUS "light food and beverages" (Lol) and you have to consent to being FILMED (no problemo.) I find it ironic that a private business offers MUCH higher compensation to be a "fake" juror than the COUNTY often offers to be a REAL one!! I also found it interesting that the first qualification listed for this job (BEFORE being an American citizen, "able to read and understand English" and having a clean criminal record, even) was "MUST BE DEPENDABLE AND RELIABLE."

Wow.

Just this week I've had two examples of eminently UNreliable workers, you see.  And it helps me understand why dependability and reliability are so VALUED by these lawyers.

First, I went to have an oil change at the Dealership, on Monday.  Though I scheduled this appointment last week and the Dealer confirmed me TWICE, when I went there on Monday the service lady said "I wasn't in the computer."  She decided to squeeze me in ANYway (Monday mornings ARE very busy), but as she's signing me in she's trying to aggressively upsell me on extra service I did not want or need...as if she had credibility, or something!!

I tried to graciously tell her I'm not interested, but she kept pushing...I felt like saying (but I didn't), "Lady, you guys didn't even have me IN your computer today, now I'm supposed to believe your computer when it says I need so-and-so, or else it's the end of the world?"  But the kicker is that as I'm sitting in the waiting room, killing time as they're doing the oil change, and JUST the oil change, a secretary FROM THE SAME CAR DEALER CALLS MY CELL, SAYS SHE'S SORRY I MISSED MY APPOINTMENT AND ASKS ME IF I'D LIKE TO RESCHEDULE.

You can't make this stuff up, people!!

Then, on Wednesday, I went to get a haircut and diligently showed up at 8:30 am so I could be FIRST (I'm a busy guy, you know.) My barber shows up TEN MINUTES LATE and the first thing she does is start saying how she wants to go home early that day (leaving at 4:30, instead of 5 pm.)  It probably would have left a better impression if she APOLOGIZED, first, to the four of us guys in line who had OUR schedules involuntarily altered because of her tardiness, rather than blurting out how SHE wanted to alter HER schedule for HER own reasons.

These are just SOME of the ways folks today are unreliable...and if you've read this far, you've no doubt thought of your OWN examples. People who are unreliable get me upset  (can you tell?) because I had my own service business for 35 years and I was ALWAYS prompt and reliable...it is SO easy to be that way, if workers would just TRY.  My wife had someone mess HER up this week, TOO and I said to her that it's an "Unreliability Epidemic"...but where's the VACCINE??

It's no wonder that the local legal firm values dependability and reliability so much. These traits are so RARE these days, sadly.

In closing, it's not "for sure" that I'll get hired to be this "fake juror" for a day.  I would LOVE to do this because we watch the show "Bull" each week and find it fascinating (they ALSO use the "fake juror" system). I had to fill in an online application, and the legal firm will let me know in ten days if I'm acceptable to them or not.

But what IS for sure if if they hire me, Lord Willing when I give them my opinions and feedback on December 14th they'll get their money's worth from a guy who won't forget the date and who WILL be on time!!